Have you ever organized a meeting? Researched an issue? Volunteered in your community? Taught a class? Do you have the courage to knock on a door and listen to someone’s story? Can you imagine a better future for the working poor? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes” or if you want to learn how to do these things, then Labor Summer is for you!

The UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education (Labor Center) offers an exciting opportunity for students to become summer interns with unions and community-based organizations. The Labor Summer Internship Program is an innovative PAID internship for graduate and undergraduate students, providing opportunities to learn from and work with unions and labor organizations on issues vital to California’s working people.

The Learn Organizing Skills Track introduces students to learning about organizing campaigns in unionsand community-based organizations. Interns will learn the tools of the trade such as campaign planning, communications, coalition-building, worker education and training, and campaign evaluation.

The Applied Research and Policy Track teaches students research skills that make an impact in unions and community-based organizations. Students get the opportunity to learn from union researchers involved in some of the nation’s most exciting and important organizing and policy campaigns. As a part of the orientation, Applied Research and Policy interns participate in the Labor Center’s two-day Strategic Research Workshop where they are joined by researchers working at labor unions and community-based organizations. Together they learn the basics of strategic and policy research in a labor environment and some labor economics.

"Through my placement, I have seen the importance of educating and empowering members. The changes they create in the workplace have larger real world implications."—Labor Summer intern, 2016